A patient admitted to a hospital, an outpatient treatment center, or an outpatient surgery center will have an intravenous (IV) catheter inserted for easy access for fluids and drugs to be administered to the patient. The IV catheter is typically inserted using an IV catheter insertion device, and some of these IV catheter insertion devices have become known in the industry as JELCOs after the name of one company which brought these insertion devices to market. In addition to placement of an IV catheter, it is frequently necessary for a sample of the patient's blood to be obtained—e.g., for testing, blood typing or other analysis. For many of these blood tests, only a small sample of blood is required. After the IV catheter has been inserted, the healthcare worker may obtain this blood sample by various means. One method would be to have the patient endure another needle stick either by a needle and syringe to draw an aliquot of blood, or by pricking the patient's finger with a lancet for a few drops of blood.
Several different types of intravenous (IV) catheter insertion devices currently are on the market. One such IV catheter insertion device is marketed by Smiths Medical under its ProtectIV trademark. This device can be seen represented by U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,740. This device uses a passive system to protect the user from needle stick injury. In its design, this device has a non-removable flash chamber. The invention described in this application provides a method and device to allow the user to access the blood within a flash chamber of such a device for testing.
Some have proposed to use some of the blood that remains within the JELCO or IV catheter insertion device after the IV catheter has been inserted in a patient for these simple blood tests. Most IV catheter insertion devices include an integrated flash chamber. Red blood appears within the flash chamber of an IV catheter insertion device as the operator inserts the needle of the IV catheter insertion device into the vein to show that the IV catheter has entered a vein. The operator watches the flash chamber continuing to fill with blood as the operator advances the IV catheter into the vein, thereby ensuring the IV catheter remains properly positioned within the vein. Usually the proximal end of the flash chamber is blocked by a flash plug. The flash plug typically includes a filter material that allows air to vent from the flash chamber as the blood or fluid fills the chamber, but prevents the blood or fluid from passing from the flash chamber. IV catheter insertion devices of the prior art may have one of two different types of flash plugs. One type of IV catheter insertion device, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,740, has a fixed or non-removable flash plug. Another type of prior art IV catheter insertion device is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,917,671; this type of IV insertion device has a removable flash plug at the end of its flash chamber.
When an IV catheter has been placed within the vein, the remainder of the JELCO or IV catheter insertion device is removed from the patient. A small amount of the patient's blood remains within the flash chamber of the JELCO or IV catheter insertion device. By accessing the patient's blood from the flash chamber of the IV catheter insertion device, the operator may be able to avoid an additional needle stick to the patient. There are some known approaches to access blood in the flash chamber of an IV catheter insertion device. One IV catheter insertion device, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,740 which is currently marketed by Smiths Medical under its ProtectIV trademark, offers a unique problem when trying to access the blood within the flash chamber since it has a non-removable flash plug. As such, users must adapt special methods if they wish to access the blood within the flash chamber. One such method to access this blood in an IV insertion device with a non-removable flash plug involves finding and using an external probe, such as a pen or a golf tee, to push the internal and non-removable flash plug within the flash chamber to expel blood from the flash chamber. The use of an external device such as a golf tee or pen is undesirable for several reasons. The external device must be stored some place that is easily accessible to the operator when the operator is ready to use it. The use of an external device is inefficient as the worker must look for or gather additional equipment when accessing the captured blood or fluid and replace the additional equipment for its next use, if the worker were to reuse any external probe or device (including a pen or a golf tee), cross-contamination may occur from one flash chamber to another, putting other patients and the healthcare worker at risk. In addition the user must align the external probe with the flash plug while pushing the device and flash plug forward within the flash chamber while at the same time keeping the tip of the needle over the correct spot on the testing strip.
In IV catheter insertion devices that have removable flash plugs, another prior art approach to access the blood in a flash chamber requires the healthcare worker to remove the flash plug, thereby opening the flash chamber to access the blood within the flash chamber for testing. This action may expose a healthcare worker needlessly to hazardous material (such as blood or other bodily fluid) that may spill from the flash chamber.
While various prior art methods may allow the healthcare worker to access the blood or fluid within the flash chamber of an IV catheter insertion device (or JELCO), these methods present an inefficient solution with undesirable aspects and limitations.
My System Patent provides a design of a complete IV insertion device in which blood can be accessed from the device. However, many institutions and professionals continue to use Jelco devices of the prior design, and it is desired to provide a way for them to access the blood which is located in the flash chamber for testing purposes.
The present invention addresses some of these undesirable limitations and aspects to provide an improved device and method for accessing blood from an IV catheter insertion device without the use of undesirable additional hardware and without unnecessary risks.
This new method and device will thereby increase the efficiency of the healthcare worker and reduce the hazardous exposure of bodily fluids to the workers and patients. Other disadvantages and limitation of the prior art systems will be apparent to those skilled in the art.